In the southern U.S., young people are more likely to develop colorectal cancer at an early age, but they receive fewer antibiotic prescriptions and colonoscopies than in other regions. This suggests that factors other than antibiotic use or screening rates may be contributing to the higher cancer rates in this area.

Between 2001 and 2020, the number of new cases of colorectal cancer in adults aged 20 to 54 rose in every region of the United States, with the fastest increase in the West and the slowest in the South, showing that different areas experienced different rates of growth in this disease.

From 2001 to 2020, early-onset colorectal cancer was most common in the southern U.S., but its numbers grew slowly there; in the western U.S., it started less common but increased faster, showing different patterns of growth between the two regions.